I
wish I lived in Manchester. The Manchester Mothers
Who Make are having their December meeting today. Manchester is the only
place in the country where the Mothers
Who Make model is currently working as well as it should. Why? Aside from
the dedication of the fantastic Manchester mums, it is in large part due to the
brilliant support of Home, the venue behind them. Home are the only venue so
far to have come fully on board to champion the venture. In other places where
a group has grown it has been artist-led. A mother has got in touch with me,
saying she wants to start a group near her. Then we have had to go round knocking
on doors to try to find a suitable and supportive arts-related venue – this
process can take a while. It is vital to the aims of Mothers Who Make, and to the quality of the conversations we
support that meetings do not take place in social, public spaces – not in cafes
or foyers. I want the participants to have the rare experience of being
welcomed by a professional, creative space in their role as a mother and with
their children, not only as an artist. Spaces in which we are visible and
valued in our dual roles of mother and maker are hard to find. Meetings are
also not social gatherings – we are trying to hold space for creative research
and exchange, so we need to be given the same status as we would for a
rehearsal or workshop.

Invariably
however venues initially try to put us in their foyers. Even if we do find a
venue that is happy to host us and give us a proper space, it feels as if they
are doing us a big favour, rather than us, in fact, also bringing something
from which the venue can greatly benefit. In Manchester the venue initiated the
group. Kevin Jamieson, the Artistic Director, having heard about the group,
invited and paid for me to travel from London to set up a Manchester branch.
That was in Jan ’15. Since then the group has gone from strength to strength, enriching
everyone involved – participants and venue alike.

Why
is this the exception rather than the rule? In part it is because, as I have
found on this crowdfunding campaign, it is difficult to explain to people what Mothers Who Make is and why it is so
valuable. It is not a sexy show. It is not a box-ticking community project. It is a kind of participant workshop but
not the usual kind. And mostly, when
things don’t fit into a category neatly, they get marginalised. Manchester’s Home,
to their credit, had the vision to recognise the group as a worthwhile
initiative even though it doesn’t fit into the pre-existent categories. They
provide a monthly space, include the group in their programme, are responsive
to its growth and changing needs, publish a monthly blog from the participants.
The result is a strong, creative, committed community of support.

Shortly,
I am going to hand over to the Manchester group themselves to tell you more
about what is working so well there. My hope is that through this campaign and with our Arts Council award, we will gain the status to enable every Mothers Who Make group round the country
to be as strong and vibrant as the Manchester group. Go here to make it happen:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/mothers-who-make

Venue producer
Jodie Ratcliffe at HOME says:

When
we first heard about Mothers Who Make we just knew that we needed HOME to be
involved in it in some way, although we didn’t really know then the positive
impact that it would have 12 months down the line. As an organisation it’s
wonderful to be able to open our doors to creative Mothers and their children,
bringing spaces to life in a way that doesn’t happen often enough. The Mothers
are so talented and inspiring and although I do not sit in on the sessions I
can see from their feedback and minutes that they each leave the session
feeling a little bit more motivated to continue their creative practice. It’s
not hard to facilitate these sessions; we simply block a space out for 2hours
per month, and have a regular volunteer (a Mother) to help set up the chairs,
tables, tea and coffee. It’s also really rewarding for me as I am able to let
the Mothers know about opportunities in our building, whether that’s a baby
friendly screening, a workshop or an upcoming production. Mothers Who Make
Manchester is a vital and encouraging community and we are in no rush to stop
it.

What the participants say…..

Once
a month, at HOME, a truly fantastic group of talented women come, some with
their children in their arms, and talk about what it is to be creative and a
mother, what they want, why they want it. Every session leaves me feeling
encouraged and supported and galvanised to dig deeper and keep making in anyway
I can.

- Felicity Goodman

That’s
why I think the Mother Who Make groups are important. They allow us to
interrogate these notions. To question the pictures we are given of perfect
mothers or of selfish artists in their studios who are feted with great success
but are monsters in their personal lives. I think meeting and talking to people
who are neither perfect nor monstrous but can still claim to be mothers and
artists will help break these images into pieces.

- Lucy Tomlinson

I
heard about Mothers Who Make through a friend, an actor who’d been to one of
the previous Manchester sessions. I thought it was an excellent idea for a
movement because the relationship between artistic practices and motherhood
seems, to me, to be a very fraught one, both in terms of practicalities (time,
money) and in terms of how mothers, especially mothers who make, are positioned
in (and often judged by) society. …. And so, the idea of finding a peer
network of people who were trying to negotiate the same territory was very
exciting. The Mothers Who Make sessions have been truly inspiring: having these
conversations about expectations and assumptions and problems, and hearing
about other people’s practices and ambitions and coping mechanisms, has been an
overwhelmingly positive and galvanizing experience. Writing, as a career, can
be quite solitary, so the opportunity to build a network of like-minded people,
even if we’re working in different fields, is stimulating – we’re all facing
broadly the same challenges, and it’s fascinating to get to know how we’re each
doing it.

- Valerie O'Riordan

Since
joining Mothers Who Make in the
Spring of 2016, I’ve been able to share some of that excitement again, and to
become excited about other people’s creative epiphanies. Creativity is
contagious. And I don’t need to over-explain the challenges of being an artist
and a parent. It’s a given, a common understanding, a shared frustration, a
grief even, for a part of us that can so easily become lost in the day to day.
…

Through
the support of MWM I have
gathered up enough confidence and momentum to go for a number of writing
opportunities and even manage to hit some deadlines.